Op-ed: Maccabiah is a sports event based on athletes' race, lacking any valuable achievements

Yakir Elkariv|Published: 18.07.13 , 20:06

If we take a minute to peel off its layer of Zionist bullshit, the Maccabiah
is in fact the answer to the following question: What would happen if we decided to ignore every single aspect of sports and maintained that all athletes participating in a certain event would be chosen not based on their skills, but according to their race – let's say, Jews?

Well, we have been checking that for quite a few years now, since 1932 to be exact, and we know what happens: An inflated sports event lacking any valuable achievements or real records – certainly in comparison to world championships, not to mention Olympic Games.

In fact, it's as though the Maccabiah is meant to emphasize every four years the prevailing opinion that Jews should not engage in any sport, apart from chess or bridge. And apart from the fact that it gives Jews living abroad the opportunity to meet and get to know each other in Israel
– it's unclear why we need this enterprise, which originally aimed to strengthen the connection between the young State of Israel and the Diaspora in the pre-Internet and social networks era.

But the most irritating thing today is the idea of a sports enterprise in which participation is based on the athletes' race. After all, if an event of a similar scale would be held abroad exclusively for Christian or Muslim athletes, and the participation of a Jew would be banned because of his or her race – the earth would move, and rightfully so. But we, who still live under the fake ethos of a small nation surrounded by enemies, are allowed to do whatever we want.

So what do we do? Bring young Jewish youths from all over the world to the Holy Land, in order to strengthen their Jewish identity on the way; if only we ourselves knew what that meant. We could just as well declare a dancing or equestrian competition – as long as they're here.

Once we may have hoped that some of them would fall in love with Israel and stay with us. Today we hope they'll fall in love with us and take us with them when they go back abroad.